A Imagined Scene with the 10th Doctor
by Denver Bloom
Summary: Just a scene I wrote with the Tenth Doctor and companions, Eddie, Tea, and Lucy.


A Conversation With The Doctor

Night fell on the streets of Ancient Chicago, the deepening hues of purple giving way to the black of the night sky. What few stars that came through the city lights seemed to blink like shy pixies, trying to keep away from any human eyes. The cold air nipped at the tired and worn masonry of the centuries-old buildings of this once-booming city, now just a monument of ruins telling of of the former glory of its long-vanished inhabitants.

An old metal barrel was releasing flame and smoke as it once did over a hundred years ago, giving heat to two men who waited for the girls to return from their search for food.

The taller man, whose slim, athletic frame was protected by a well-kept military jacket over civilian clothing, looked to be nearly sixty years old. He was Edward Caller, formerly a Sergeant for His Majesty's Royal Forces several millennia yet to come. He looked around him to take in the city. He recalled that this was the same city that was merely a legend in his time. Chicago, that toddling town, it was called. He'd seen pictures, of course, but the reality shook him almost as much as the cold.

The other man appeared much younger, but was actually much more than 900 years old. But his clean-shaven youthful look suggested that he wasn't a day over 25. Unlike the older travelling companion standing next to him however, the cold didn't seem to be bothering him at all.

Edward rubbed his hands next to the fire in an effort to bring heat into his cold, stiff joints and decided he had to speak, "so, how long are you going to keep this up?"

"Keep what up," the Doctor asked innocently.

"'Oh, woe is me! I'm the last of my kind!'" Edward's voice seemed to mimic the Doctor, adding an air of sarcasm.

The Doctor stood up, brushing off his hands with his coat, "but I am the last of my kind! I saw them all die."

"Bullshit! You might play that card with the pretty girls, mate, but you're not fooling me! The Time Lord's aren't dead! Just tell me I'm wrong, Doctor! Tell me that I'm just grasping at straws! Tell me that the reason that you're all that remains is because they didn't trust you with their own survival! They're waiting for you, Doctor! They've been waiting for you to tell them it's safe to return! Isn't it about time you gave the all clear?"

The Doctor lunged at Edward, throwing him against a wall, "how dare you! How dare you call me a liar!"

With complete calm, not bothering to resist the Doctor's accusations or physical attack, Edward replied, "I dare because somebody has to."

The shaken Time Lord released Edward and stepped back, with the haunted look of an old man who has seen too much compromise already. Feeling the weight of centuries of running, he found that he could no longer bear his own weight. He sat down and ran his hands over his cherubic face.

"When did you figure it out?"

:"When I realized that you were running from something, Doctor. Not just running, but from something that you couldn't share with the rest of us."

The Doctor nodded and sighed with a breath of relief that seemed to be long overdue. He grasped a stick at his feet and made random sketches in the sandy ground with one end.

"I'm afraid, Eddie. I've been first into battle all my life, never once showing fear. But the one time I was most needed, when everything I would hold dear was on the line, I was a sniveling coward. Then they gave me a way to escape. A way to avoid facing my one and only real act of cowardice."

The Doctor didn't bother to look up as Edward sat next to him, instead he just continued, "they asked me to help them win this war once and for all. All I had to do was be the last remaining Time Lord. Just long enough for the enemies of Gallifrey to lose interest."

"What was the war all about, Doctor?"

"Time," he answered, "the ability to travel through time. The Time Lords knew the dangers of Time Travel, and weren't about to let anyone else have that sort of power. Yet there were those who weren't about to sit idly by and let some stuffy overbearing old men tell them that time was a commodity they would not share. So they took it. And that sparked off the war. And the only way to win was to lose."

"Messin' around with time ain't something folks ought to be doing. I'll give you that. But how does losing the war help you win?"

"Because as long as the Time Lords were gone, the secret to time travel would forever remain a mystery."

"You know the secret, don't you, Doctor? Couldn't they just take it from you?"

"Oh, of course I know the science and the physics of it, but without one key element, it doesn't matter what you know. That's why I can travel through time in my Tardis. It's no secret how that works. But if you want to become travelers in your own right, there's just one thing you need. And since the Council of Gallifrey are all presumed dead, you just won't be able to do it."

"And that key"

"is Gallfrey itself."

Edward nodded as he began to understand. Gallifrey, burned to ash, a casualty in the time wars. Yet if the Time Lords were to return, all that could be undone.

"As it should be. I'm not saying my life was all peaches, but it could easily get worse if someone started playing with history. I could have been the King!"

The two men shared a knowing chuckle, thinking back to how they first met.

"But you're right. I'll have to bring them back, sometime."

"And when you do"

Edward didn't have time to finish his sentence, for the girls, Tea and Lucy, returned with two sacks of canned foods.

"When you do what?" asked Tea as her attractive form entered into the light given out by the fire.

"Nothing," the men replied.

Lucy dropped her sack next to a rock and sighed, "I can't believe this is all there is after a century. This was my home! One hundred years and it's so dead."

Tea nodded, "when humans fled to the stars, they were at least kind enough to provide for any unexpected guests."

"And I'm glad that they left the lights on," admitted Tea.

Tea nodded, "any idea how long we're going to have to survive here?"

The Doctor nodded, donning his glasses, "with luck, we won't have to stay long. I'm sure that the Tardis will return once it's clear we're stranded."

"How long, Doctor," Tea demanded.

"Oh.. days probably. Or weeks. Nah. It wouldn't take that long. Not unless something happened. Then it could take years. But the odds against that are staggering."

"DOCTOR!"

The looks the girls were giving him quickly quieted him. No sense making them any more nervous than they already are. 


End file.
